The Terrible Creative

Patrick Fore
  • 4.7 (38)
  • Design
  • Updated Weekly

The Terrible Creative is a storytelling podcast for photographers, designers, and creative professionals working through the parts of the creative process no gear review or business course ever covers. Each episode is 30 to 40 minutes. Solo. Story-driven. Built around mental health, artistic identity, and what honest work costs in a career rewarding performance over truth. This is not a photography podcast about cameras, presets, or client strategy. This is a podcast about the inner experience of being a creative professional, made for the mid-career photographer or designer who has mastered the technical side but lost the thread. Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer, author, and former lead photographer and brand designer for Taylor Guitars. His work has appeared globally for clients like Nike, Petco, and Verizon. He built this show because none of the podcasts he found addressed the real problem. If you are a photographer or creative professional who feels competent on the outside and quietly lost on the inside, you are a Terrible Creative. This is your podcast.

  1. Death Grip - Google AI Just Changed How Clients Find You. Here's What It Can't Replace.

    2d ago ·  Video

    Death Grip - Google AI Just Changed How Clients Find You. Here's What It Can't Replace.

    Something shifted last week. Not dramatically. Quietly, the way things in this industry tend to change — while you're working, while you're trying to keep the phone ringing. Google's AI Mode is rewriting how clients find photographers. The search box that used to send people to your website now answers their question and keeps them inside Google. The content you spent years building to get found is being consumed by the machine that replaced you. So I did what I always do. Stayed up too late, rebuilt half my website for an algorithm, and unpublished pages I'd spent months on. This episode is about that night. About what it costs to hold the wrong things too tight. About a portrait subject who sat in her car for ten minutes before she could walk through my studio door — and what happened in the room after she did. And about the part of this work that no platform update, no search algorithm, no AI announcement has ever been able to touch. The ninety percent is window dressing. This episode is about the ten. Resources and Links Lessons From A Terrible Photographer (The Book) https://www.terriblephotographer.com/the-book Support the show https://www.terriblephotographer.com/support Subscribe to Pub Notes, the newsletter https://the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb The Terrible Creative on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/terriblephotographer/ Patrick Fore on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/patrickfore/ Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California

    25 min
  2. Mute - You've Spent Years Getting Good. Do You Have Anything Left to Say?

    May 26 ·  Video

    Mute - You've Spent Years Getting Good. Do You Have Anything Left to Say?

    There is a man standing in a clearing in Arkansas with a yellow guitar, singing about insulin prices to nobody in particular. Three million people found him. Not because of the production value. Because he was saying the thing. This episode is about the gap most professional creatives never talk about — the distance between the skills that pay your rent and the thing you actually have to say. How years of executing other people's briefs can quietly atrophy a different kind of muscle. And what happens when you finally try to use it. I talk about Jesse Welles, Oliver Anthony, a series of images I made in 2024 that landed in silence, and why Marcus Aurelius titled his most important work "To Himself." This one took a while to say out loud. In This Episode Jesse Welles — "War Isn't Murder" Watch on YouTube wellesmusic.com Jesse Welles on Bandcamp Oliver Anthony — "Rich Men North of Richmond" Watch on YouTube oliveranthonymusic.com CNN News Coverage — Sandy Hook Elementary School, December 14, 2012 Watch on YouTube Used for editorial purposes. The Book Lessons From a Terrible Photographer Support the Show theterriblecreative.com/support Stay Connected Subscribe to Pub Notes (the newsletter) The Terrible Creative on Instagram Patrick Fore on Instagram Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot SessionsRecorded from my garage in San Diego, California

    44 min
  3. Clown Nose - What the Creator Economy Actually Costs a Working Creative

    May 19

    Clown Nose - What the Creator Economy Actually Costs a Working Creative

    There's a composite photographer in this episode named Nate. His details have been changed. His situation has not. This episode is about the creator economy — what it actually costs, who it was actually built for, and the quiet compromise most creative professionals are making every day. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just quietly, in parking garages, watching the blue light of a phone, waiting for a signal that isn't coming. I talk about the Gilded Age, the algorithm, and a system so elegant it doesn't need to be cruel. I also name something I've been avoiding saying out loud for a while. If this one lands close, send it to someone who needs to hear it. Nate is a composite character. Details altered to protect identity. THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    44 min
  4. Terrible Conversations - Tom Wright - Tom Wright on Creative Work and Photography

    May 14 ·  Bonus

    Terrible Conversations - Tom Wright - Tom Wright on Creative Work and Photography

    Terrible Conversations w/ Tom Wright Tom Wright is a photography consultant based in Burnley, UK. He calls himself a phototherapist, and no, he's not a doctor. But photographers that work with him tend to leave unstuck. Tom started in 2011 teaching photographers how to shoot Impossible Project instant film. From there he shot weddings for over a decade, moved into commercial photography, and eventually traded client work for consulting after discovering that helping photographers was the thing that actually got him out of bed. In this conversation, we talk about what it means to develop a style versus chasing trends, why AI is eating the bottom of the photography market, and what most photographers are missing when they look at their own work. We also spend way too long talking about British food. You're welcome. What we get into: Why Tom calls himself a phototherapist and what that actually meansThe difference between fashion and style in photographyWhat bifurcation is doing to the industry right nowWhy the artists are still there, just quieterHow Tom identifies what's already working in someone's portfolioThe Polaroid workshops that started it allWhy commodity photography has a shrinking runwayWhat to do if you don't feel like you have anything interesting to sayFind Tom at bytomw.com and on Instagram at @bytomw. Consultations are free. Go get unstuck. ----- THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    1h 7m
  5. Stop Being A Tool - Why Creatives Were Never Just Useful

    May 12

    Stop Being A Tool - Why Creatives Were Never Just Useful

    We’ve spent a century conditioning ourselves to believe that if we aren’t "producing," we aren't "valuable." But in 2026, the machines can out-produce us all. This episode is about The Great Decoupling—the moment we stop being high-end processors and start being the source. We dive into the "Productivist Fallacy," why Maya and Chris are grieving the loss of their utility, and why your "Why" is the only proprietary data left that the machines can't touch. It’s time to move from being a resource to being the source. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Yale Budget Lab – March 2026 Report on Creative Automation.Immanuel Kant – The distinction between Instrumental and Intrinsic Value (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals).IDIBELL UB Brain Cognition Group – 2026 study in Advanced Science on human imaginative leaps.James Taylor – SuperCreativity and the concept of Centaurs vs. Cyborgs.THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It’s part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper into finding the "Source" when the "Resource" runs dry. LINKS Website: terriblephotographer.comSupport the show: terriblephotographer.com/supportSubscribe to Pub Notes: the-terrible-photographer.kit.comInstagram: @terriblephotographerPatrick on Instagram: @patrickforeEmail Patrick: patrick@terriblephotographer.comEmail is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Images Licensed through Adobe Stock. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    40 min
  6. The Cost of Getting Good - The Cost of Getting Good - How Success Becomes a Creative Trap for Creatives

    May 5

    The Cost of Getting Good - The Cost of Getting Good - How Success Becomes a Creative Trap for Creatives

    Getting good at your craft is supposed to be the goal. But for a lot of us, competence became the cage. This episode is about the feedback loop nobody warns you about: the better you get, the harder it is to leave. And what we build around the good thing to protect it. Also, some honesty about why I called this show "Terrible" that I haven't said out loud before. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville (1853) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot (1915) Robert Berglas - Self-Handicapping research THE BOOK Lessons From a Terrible Photographer is out now. It's part memoir, part field guide, and part honest conversation about what it actually costs to build a creative life. If this episode landed, the book goes deeper. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Terrible-Photographer-Photography-Probably/dp/B0GRGLYKYS/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 LINKS Website: http://terriblephotographer.com Support the show: https://www.terriblephotographer.com/support Subscribe to Pub Notes: https://the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terriblephotographer/ Patrick on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickfore/Email Patrick : patrick@terriblephotographer.com Email is always open. Questions, thoughts, hate mail. I respond to everything. Link above. The Terrible Creative is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    31 min
  7. Subterranean - On Obsession, Part II

    Apr 28

    Subterranean - On Obsession, Part II

    Where does creative obsession actually come from? Not how to manufacture it. Not how to find it on a vision board. Where it actually lives. How it grows underground without your permission. And what it sounds like when it finally tries to break through. This episode is the follow up to Episode 61: Obsessed. If you haven't listened to that one yet, start there. This week I go back to a specific moment. Sixteen years old, a Mac G5, a cosmos built from scratch in a high school art room in Freeport Illinois. Two strangers from the Art Institute of Chicago who saw something I didn't. And then the long, complicated story of what happened to that signal when the framework got louder than I did. We also get into David Lynch, Jon Batiste, the 19th century psychology of monomania, and a John Updike line that I think is one of the most honest things ever said about what separates artists from entertainers. Clips used in this episode: David Lynch on his childhood memory that inspired Blue Velvet Jon Batiste on being misunderstood his first year at Juilliard WALL-E opening sequence Music: OK Go, Obsession Lessons From A Terrible Photographer is available now on Amazon. Get your copy here Website Support the show Subscribe to Pub Notes, the newsletter Terrible Photographer on Instagram Patrick Fore on Instagram Email: patrick@terriblephotographer.com Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Recorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    43 min
  8. Obsessed - Finding Your Creative Voice When the Algorithm Rewards Everyone Else's

    Apr 21

    Obsessed - Finding Your Creative Voice When the Algorithm Rewards Everyone Else's

    What separates a photographer who makes important work from one who just makes good photos? It might not be talent. It might not be gear. It might be something harder to name and harder to fake. This week I walked into an APA Peer-to-Peer Photo Book Critique in San Diego with six copies of my own book, a smug attitude, and some assumptions that didn't survive the first thirty minutes. What I saw that night from two photographers, Michele Zousmer and Andrew Hertel, forced me to sit with a question I keep asking about other people's work but rarely ask about my own. Who is this for? And what drove you to make it? This episode is about obsession. What it looks like when it's real. What it costs. And what it means when you've been swimming in borrowed obsessions long enough that you stop noticing. People and work mentioned in this episode: Michele Zousmer, documentary photographer. Her Irish Travellers project is some of the most honest and important photography I've seen in years. Website: michelezousmer.com Instagram: @michelezousmerphoto Andrew Hertel, fine art nature photographer based in San Diego. His Japan book White Silence was made in a single day in Hokkaido. It shows. Website: andrewhertel.com Instagram: @andrewjameshertel This week's clip is from @dishcreates on YouTube, talking about choosing a new artistic obsession. Worth your time. Lessons From A Terrible Photographer is available now on Amazon. Get your copy here: https://a.co/d/0aqcL8Rq Website: terriblephotographer.com Support the show: terriblephotographer.com/support Subscribe to Pub Notes, the newsletter: the-terrible-photographer.kit.com/223fe471fb Terrible Photographer on Instagram: @terriblephotographer Patrick Fore on Instagram: @patrickfore Podcast written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Fore. Music licensed through Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions. Episode photography from Adobe StockRecorded from my garage in San Diego, California.

    41 min
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Trailer

4.7
out of 5
38 Ratings

About

The Terrible Creative is a storytelling podcast for photographers, designers, and creative professionals working through the parts of the creative process no gear review or business course ever covers. Each episode is 30 to 40 minutes. Solo. Story-driven. Built around mental health, artistic identity, and what honest work costs in a career rewarding performance over truth. This is not a photography podcast about cameras, presets, or client strategy. This is a podcast about the inner experience of being a creative professional, made for the mid-career photographer or designer who has mastered the technical side but lost the thread. Hosted by Patrick Fore, commercial photographer, author, and former lead photographer and brand designer for Taylor Guitars. His work has appeared globally for clients like Nike, Petco, and Verizon. He built this show because none of the podcasts he found addressed the real problem. If you are a photographer or creative professional who feels competent on the outside and quietly lost on the inside, you are a Terrible Creative. This is your podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick Fore
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    70
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Patrick Fore Photography, LLC
  • Show Website
    The Terrible Creative

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